With Opening Day around the corner, Major League Baseball has announced a new system that will use math to show how amazing that diving outfield catch really was. The new tracking system – which doesn’t even have a name yet – will be used to track the speed and efficiency of fielders. It will base these readings on balls hit into play – including its speed, launch angle, distance and hang time. The system then calculates how fast and how well the fielders reacted, and how optimal the path they took to get to the ball really was. After testing the system at the Mets’ Citi Field last year, Major League Baseball will bring it to Miller Park in Milwaukee and Target Field in Minnesota this year and to every other park by 2015. The readouts will be made available in real time for broadcast and highlights, so the next time Oakland’s Josh Reddick leaps over the wall to rob a home run, we’ll have the numbers to prove just how awesome that catch was.
About Shelly Palmer
Shelly Palmer is the Professor of Advanced Media in Residence at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and CEO of The Palmer Group, a consulting practice that helps Fortune 500 companies with technology, media and marketing. Named LinkedIn’s “Top Voice in Technology,” he covers tech and business for Good Day New York, is a regular commentator on CNN and writes a popular daily business blog. He's a bestselling author, and the creator of the popular, free online course, Generative AI for Execs. Follow @shellypalmer or visit shellypalmer.com.